Is Illegal Immigration Really Harming the Economy?

George Steffa

2-1-2016

WRTC 103-La Freniere

Is illegal immigration really harming the economy?

During Donald Trump's current run for the presidency he introduced his feelings on the Mexican boarder saying, "I will build a great wall — and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me —and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words." The drawbacks of letting the illegal immigration problem continue are very real, however when compared to the millions of dollars that would need to be raised to construct this project, the cost starts to outweigh the benefits. Illegal immigration is seemingly impossible to stop, but it does help benefit the economy in its own unique way. Instead of focusing on this problem the U.S. Government should allocate its resources elsewhere, such as towards national defense, the wealth distribution throughout America, or even directly to the U.S. market.

The Department of Homeland Security latest estimate of the illegal immigrant population in the United States, published in 2012, estimated there were 11.5 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States as of 2011. It has also been estimated that since 2003 roughly 700,000 illegal immigrants come into the U.S. every year and remain here. Illegal immigration is seemingly impossible to stop because, for the most part, the people trying to enter into this country are trying to start better lives here then what they are accustom too in Mexico or wherever it may be they are coming from. So, it is a very tough subject to wrap one's head around when there are so many more pressing issues going on.

In order to fund a project as big as building a wall along the entire boarder, the U.S. government would need to either raises taxes or try and get some type of loan from another country, or both. During the Bush administration they began to lay fencing along the boarder and ended up putting up roughly 600 miles worth of it. This was estimated to cost about 2.4 billion dollars. This project was seen as a bad investment back then so they discontinued it, and as a nation today that is nearly 18.2 trillion dollars in debt it doesn't seem rational to go out of our way to increase that number. In an article in the National Journal the estimated cost for a brand new wall on our boarder could potentially run up a 6.4 billion dollar price tag. Even thought illegal immigrants do cause a burden to the economy, it is no where near 6.4 billion.

It may be annoying to have illegal immigrants using up tax payer money by living in government housing or by collecting welfare, but they do not hurt economic growth as much as many people believe. They are not stealing jobs away from all American people, rather just the demographic of people without high school diplomas and those who are under educated in U.S. standards since illegal immigrants are usually willing to work for less money. This allows business owners to hire workers at lower wages and help keep the cost of production much lower than they would be. By allowing business owners to lower their prices, this leads to lower prices for consumers. Since consumers will be paying less they will have more money to spend on other goods, thus stimulating the economy. These immigrants are not only employees but also consumers. The amount of consumption may be minimal compared to others demographics, but a consumer is a consumer and these immigrants help stimulate every local market they find their way into.